Do pea pod upgrades count a extra plants in PvZ2?

Question

In Plants vs Zombies 2, to get some stars you must plant less than a given number of plants.

In those levels, do Pea Pod upgrades that go onto existing Pea Pod count as extra plants?

The Encyclopedia seems to indicate this way - it explicitly refers to "multiple plantings" and "repeatedly planted in the same space". Also, I have experienced "losing" the star level when I had zero plants to plant left and I planted a Pea Pod upgrade.

However, I'd like an official answer based on some sort of PvZ documentation to confirm my observations and guesses.

Answer 1

Didn't you just answer your own question?

Also, I have experienced "losing" the star level when I had zero plants to plant left and I planted a Pea Pod upgrade.

So yes, planting a Pea Pod anywhere(including existing ones) counts as planting an extra plant.

EDIT

From Pea Pod wiki:

On missions with a limited amount of plants, each head added to the pea pod will count as a new plant.